amazingsirkg

After a good 5 or so listens, I think I've got a good enough grasp to evaluate AHFOD... 1) A Head Full of Dreams (8/10) One of Coldplay's better album openers. A good HLH-sounding anthem rock song and excellent choice to start the album. Guy did a fantastic job with the bassline. Lyrics are so-so, but that can be said for the whole album. Jonny's fast-paced strumming is what really defines this song, however. The non-lyrical chorus in the 2nd half (oh-oh's) are where the song really picked up. AHFOD's title track gets an eight because of its boldness and stadium-readiness. 2) Birds (10/10) Well damn. Based on the preview, I never expected this song to be this amazing. Caught me right from the start and did not let go till the abrupt ending. It follows an indie electro-pop style (something that is very different from Coldplay's usual pop-rock), but retains an X&Yish style with Jonny's guitar. Speaking of guitar, the mini guitar solo at the end is excellent. This song was beautiful, and very floaty and dreamy compared to the heavier bombast of the rest of the album. If Coldplay decides to follow this psychadelic/indie electropop style in future LP's, then they get a thumbs up from me. Definately goes into my Top 10 Coldplay songs. The bird transition thing into HFTW is also really good. 3) Hymn for the Weekend (7/10) I honestly don't get why so many people hate this song. Chris wanted to make a good R&B club-stomper, and he did. Once people get over the fact that an alt-rock British band that produced this song, you'll find out that this is actually a very good R&B song. The lyrics are suprisingly solid (well... atleast as solid as "So drunk, so high" go), as Chris makes a reference to love being a drug... something that he can get high to. Beyonce's vocals aren't too overpowering (unlike Rihanna's from PoC), and the chorus is uplifting and powerful. I dunno... something about this track clicked with me (coming from a guy who prefers the rockier sounding Coldplay songs like Daylight and Square One). Still don't get why Beyonce didn't get a feature on this song like Tove Lo did for Fun. 4) Everglow (7/10) Didn't like this song initially, but I warmed up to it. It is a pretty standard Coldplay ballad with a Stargate production twist added. I like the *boop* sounds (similar to the ones used in Oceans) in the background, and the piano chords progressions (albeit simple) provided good support to the track. The chorus, with the "But when I'm cold, cold, cold" part was not only repetitive, but annoying. Chris could have literally substituted cold with some other word and it would have worked. Also the "heyyy..." looping in the background got on my nerves pretty quickly. It has traces of good Coldplay ballads like "Amsterdam," "Fly On (O)," "The Scientist" and "Fix You," but lacks the powerful chorus that those tracks had, and thus falls short. It was a good soft song and filler to play between HFTW and AOAL though. 5) Adventure of a Lifetime (8.5/10) A gorgeous psychadelic disco track with arugably one of the most complicated Coldplay riffs. Jonny did a great job making the riff sound like a sitar (one of the few songs on the album that has the Indian inspiration). Chris's vocals sound happy and passionate at the same time, and the guitar and basswork is great. Extra points for the oohoo's at the end. If Coldplay were to go entirely pop in their next few LP's, AOAL is definately the way to go. Experimental and pop with a trace of psychadelic in there - A great turning point in the album. Taking points off for the mediocre lyrics and repetitiveness. 6) Fun (8/10) Another song that grew on me the more I listened to it. The ambient-fading guitar was golden. Tove Lo's vocals matched up perfectly with Chris's, and while Stargate's production was written all over this track, it had traces to AROBTTH and X and Y ballads. Somber, melodic, and whimsical, this song definately surpassed my expectations and in a way was "fun" and pleasing to listen. 7) Kaleidoscope (NR) Not going to rate this one, since it's a transition but.... if any band is going to have transitions, it needs to be like Kaleidoscope. The "Guest House" poem, Obama singing Amazing Grace, the peaceful piano in the background. The synths swooshing up and down. This transition was great in breaking up this album and was pleasing to listen to. 8) Army of One (6.5/10) Meh. I think I gave it a 6.5 instead of a 6 out of pity. Most Coldplay album's have a forgettable track, and this is definately the one. Sounds like a downtrodden, Tove Lo-less, version of fun with a weird, slow, thumpy beat. Coldplay has done many other synth-pop songs that are way better than this one (i.e. Always in My Head, Midnight, Moving to Mars). Lyrics are ok, but the chorus goes no where. It doesn't help that XMTS is included in this track. Speaking of which... 9) X Marks the Spot (5/10) Ok, to start off, I really like Kendrick Lamar. And "Swimming Pools" is a great R&B song. But when Chris Martin, a middle aged British dude tries to sing-rap to a mediocre R&B beat, it's cringeworthy. I don't even care if it was a somewhat decent attempt. Hearing a guy that mesmerized millions of people in the early 2000's with melodic rock songs like Yellow, Clocks, and Till Kingdom Come, start singing "My heart, boom-boom, ba-boom, boom" hurts... a lot. Coldplay showed that they could make a good R&B song with HFTW, but this... is just ridiculous. *** Speaking of which, Chris said XMTS was his favorite part of the album. If LP8 is a full-on rap/hip-hop album... I don't want to think about it. The only thing keeping this thing at the half-way score of 5, is that the chorus is somewhat catchy. That's it. 10) Amazing Day (9/10) It's a good thing that after XMTS slowly and silently drifts away, we are greeted by the sitar-sounding bass of Guy Berryman once again. It falls into a trace-like waltz soon after, and Chris begins to sing: "Sat on a roof, named every star..." Phew. The lyrics are corny, but atleast they are inherently Coldplay - ("My heart. Boom boom" is not inherently Coldplay FYI). Amazing Day is also one of the few songs where Stargate has not excessively tamprered with the original song. Sounds like Always in My Head mixed with some Parachutes-esque "Ooohs" in the second part of the chorus. Jonny's guitar is good as ever, and Chris's vocals shine on this track. One of the best Coldplay ballads in a long time (aside from O, Ghost Stories had more synth-pop atmospheric songs than rock ballads, didn't fancy MX ballads, VLV had a shortage of ballads). The song feels heartfelt and powerful, and is the primary reason why this track receives a 9. 11) Colour Spectrum (NR) Once again, another transition, so I'm not rating it. More bells, synths, and atmospheric stuff. While I like the concept of these transitions, they almost make me feel like I'm being cheated of an album. But still, a pretty good transition into the album closer. 12) Up&Up (9.5/10) Yeah, it's not as good as the live version. And yeah, Stargate (once again) left their mark all over this track. But it still retains most of its raw power, emotion, and polish that propells this to be one of Coldplay's best closers. Starts of slow, builds up into a campfire-like chorus with atleast 10 people singing (including Beyonce, Blue Ivy Carter, Coldplay's kids, etc. ) "We're gonna get it. Get it together somehow." Unlike other similar-sounding Coldplay songs (Politik - which goes from loud to soft, Amsterdam - which goes from soft to loud), Up&Up does a great job slowly building up the song from just Chris' vocals, some strings, and synths, to a full on bellowing chorus with a Noel Gallagher/Jonny Buckland solo playing in the background. The song has an X&Y-ish end to it, and a pretty epic "Believe...In... Love!!!" that carries out the message well into the album's end. Another song that goes into my Top 10 Coldplay tracks. Conclusion: I really like AHFOD. It was by far the band's most diverse and experimental album, but for the genres it covered, it seemed to work out all right. It definately had it's highs (Birds, Amazing Day, Up&Up) and it had is lows (Army of One, X Marks the Spot), but overall it was a very solid album and a good swan song to the "chapter" that Coldplay has created these past 16 years. If I had to rank the albums: 1) A Rush of Blood to the Head: Great alt-rock album - angrier, darker, heavier, and grittier than Parachutes - tremendous selection of songs (with the exception of A Whisper) 2) Viva La Vida: Experimental done right. Lots of good, weird, and new sounds, but should be the epitome of what a "revolutionary" and ground-breaking album should be 3) A Head Full of Dreams: Diverse indie-pop album with a powerful, uplifting, overall theme. Dreamy, airy, and whimsical - exactly what the title intends the record to be. Had a lot of highs (the first three tracks, and the last two ones), but the middling tracks drag the album down a tad bit. If XMTS was replaced by Miracles, AHFOD could be on par with VLV. 4) Parachutes - Quiet, somber, and reflective. An amazing debut album for Coldplay. Lacks variety, though it's a great record to listen to when driving alone at night. 5) Mylo Xyloto - Anthemic pop-rock. It had a select group of great tracks (Hurts Like Heaven, Paradise, Charlie Brown, Major Minus), but also a collection of 3 uneeded transition tracks and a handful of forgetable ones. 6) X&Y - Individually, the tracks were quite superior (Square One, White Shadows, Talk, Fix You, Speed of Sound). However, the album lacked cohesion and felt like a jumble of songs put together. The album was also unecessarily long (well over an hour) and the good songs were packed with ones that were inherently forgettable (like MX) 7) Ghost Stories - A great atmospheric synth-pop album, but inevitably fell because of it's lack of variety and emotion. GS tried to present an electro-version of Parachutes, but most of the songs fell flat (partially because they were straight up boring, and the intro led into nowhere). Had a few becons of light, including the experimental Midnight and the opener, Always in My Head.